Thoughtful strategizing and understanding your legal choices are crucial in protecting your assets and offering assurance for the present and future.

Asset protection encompasses measures such as pre-nuptial financial agreements for both marriages and de facto relationships, safeguarding assets acquired before the relationship, managing inheritances and gifts received during the relationship, and promptly addressing any potential unauthorized depletion of the asset pool available for division.

Whether in a marriage or a de facto relationship, safeguarding your assets may be prudent. With our established competence in pre-relationship, during-relationship, and post-separation asset protection management, we comprehend your specific concerns and provide optimal solutions tailored to your situation.

Our comprehensive approach encompasses assets, including real estate, investments, possessions, businesses, inheritance, and superannuation.

While the idea of securing your assets may appear challenging, our customized service is designed to achieve the most favourable outcome, even in the most intricate cases.

If you’re planning on advancing money to a family member to purchase a house – now is the time to understand how you can best protect that gift for the future and mitigate against risk. Speak to our asset protection lawyers at Patford-Smith Legal Services to understand how to protect this gift.

Binding Financial Agreements

The Family Law Act 1975  provides for parties to a marriage or de facto relationship to enter into a binding legal agreement about the financial arrangements should their marriage or de facto relationship break down. Sometimes people know these agreements as ‘prenuptial agreements,’ but the legal term is ‘financial agreements.’ 

A binding financial agreement sets out how some or all of a couple’s assets will be divided in the event their relationship breaks down. It can also deal with spousal maintenance.

You can make a financial agreement before, during, or after a marriage or de facto relationship. These agreements can cover the following:

• financial settlement (including superannuation entitlements) after the breakdown of a marriage or a de facto relationship
• financial support (maintenance) of one spouse by the other after the breakdown of a marriage or a de facto relationship,
• any incidental issues.

For a financial agreement to be legally binding, you must both have:

• signed the agreement, and 
• received independent legal and financial advice before signing (from two separate law firms).

A Binding Financial Agreement is, essentially, a contract. Therefore, as in contract law, it is always best to have such an agreement in writing to protect both parties. If it is solely a verbal agreement, then should the relationship break down in the future, you have nothing to refer back to.

Unfortunately, you cannot prepare a binding and legally enforceable Binding Financial Agreement without using lawyers. You cannot do it yourself. If you try, it won’t be enforceable and will most likely not be worth the paper on which it is written.